
rvyo 



.J 







ADDRESS, 



03^r 



ik lutn d the -^krt States 



IN THE PRESENT CRISIS, 



Delivered in Cfalvestoii, Deo. 12tli, I860 



BY REV. J. E. CARNES 



By special invitation of the Committee nf Safd'/ and Correspondfii'-e^ 
and many of tJie oldest citizens. 



G A L \' E S T O N : 
Printed at tlie ^•^ew^ri'" Book and .Tob Office. 

1860. 



ADDRESS, 



ox 



IX THE PRESENT CRrSLS. 



By Rev. J. E CARNES. 



DEI.IVEHED IN aALVKSTON, DECRMBER li, 1S«0, IIY SPECIAL INVITATION Of 

THE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY AND CORRESPONDFACE, AND 

MANY OF THE OLDEST CITIZENS. 



Ladies axd Gentlemen : 

Let any onu who ia prompt to regard my position at this moment as ex- 
traordinary, not forget that the present is an extraordinary time, and that^ 
liaving no precedent to guide me, I have been compelled to make such 
lesponse to the invitation to address yon as my own jndgment might sug- 
gest. No one, therefore, is responsible but myself. The Church to whiclx 
I have the honor to belong, is not a p'litical body, and has no politics — 
Kone whatever. In ecclesiastical matr.'-rs she speaks for herself through 
her own accredited organs. But in civil affairs she has no voice, and wants 
none. So that when one of her members exercises any strictly civil 
right, he doe,s so as a citizen without acknowledging; her autho'.ity, or 
"wishing to be understood as acting in anywise on her behalf. In becom- 
ing a minister of religion at her altar, I simply pledged myself to do 
ttolhing which might reasonably be expected to reflect injury upon that 
office. My address to night will not do so; the God of the Bible is the 
Lord of nations, and every crisis in their history is but a revelation of 
His Providence. I am not afraid to speak, here or elsewhere, what I be* 
lieve to be the teachings of that Providence. Bi;t no one can see all sides 
at once ; I give what appears to be the trufli from my own point of view. 



Before proceeding to do so. let mc stale the issue. It has been done for 
me in a laic speech by Judge Roberts of our Supreme Court: 

" The great question before the Americau people is : shall the instiluitoa 
of slavery be put upon a sure basis of gradual extinction. The Northern 
controlling majoritiosi bay it shall. The South say it shall not. And 
that is the issue." 

T))e man who would dispute that statement of the question is so far 
tchiud the times that it would take all night to get back to liim. I pro- 
ceed : iu the same speech it is shown that the measures adopted at the 
2forth for the extinction of slavery have now gained advantages which 
" cannot be successfully opposed, or averted, except by prompt Slate 
action, and that we are justified in pursuing that remedy to any extent 
that may be necessary to .secure our endangered rights." After showing 
that a State Convention may be called, with or without the sanction of the 
State authorities. Judge Roberts teaches that " it may declare the peo- 
ple absolved from their fealty to the General Government." He further 
says : 

•"The remedy itself (that is, secession) may be adopted conditioiifdly, 
for the purpose of placing the Stale on equal terms in treating for au ad- 
justment of satisfactory guarantees against future violations of its rights, 
or absolutely- for the purpose of final separation." 

This I regard as very important, because it affords a " platform " upon 
which all can unite. Those who think "something should be. done," can 
here find a decided position — leaving time and the progress of cvcuIh t» 
determine whether they will demand " final separation" or yield to btich 
proposals for continuing the Union as the North may choose to make. 
Any less decided ground than this, Ijegard as very unsafe at the pFC.scut 
time. As to the fears of precipitation which ma}' be entertained by souh", 
I cannot better express myself than in the uoblc, generous and just 
words of Judge Roberts : 

. " I have no fear.s that inconsiderate rashness will control them. Tilcy 
have pondered upon the issues of this crisis long and well. It is not 
unexpected. They have their minds made up about it. There is no agra- 
rian spirit in this country. There is no war of classes. There is noeoutlict 
between labor and capital. Our people are not asking or seeking to extort 
any favors from the government to themselves, or deprive othei-s of ouy 
rights. They have no motive or desire for u social lupture at home. Their 
excitement arises from au entirely opposite cause — a high resolve now 
to throw themselves into the breach, not to destroy but to protect rights; 
not to destroy property, but, to protect properly ; not to destroy life, but 
to make life worth having; not to produce discord, but to end it. Their 
excitement is not a shallow, noisy riffle, but a deep irrcsislilMe ciirrcnt, 
founded on the firmest conviction of the mind. I do not distrust llic peo- 
ple of my Stale. I will not yield to any argument founded on their want 
of discretion, want of intelligence, want of iutegiity to act for tlum.selvcs, 
in a. serious emergency, and to act now upon it." 

And now, fellow-citizens, I give my own solemnly entertained ojiinioii 



I 



as to " the duty of tlio SotUhern States in the present crisis." These ar& 
the words of my invitation to address you : my reply — given of course 
under *a full conviction of the ■weakness of human judgment — is, that the 
yonlheru States should now "strike, and firmly, and one stroke," and let 
lh:it stroke be Seokssion from the Federal Uniox ! 

But, it i>< said, we have friends at the North — -liall we deserl them t; 
Fellow-citizens, the best of those friends have long predicted that we 
would be forced to secession, and our continuance in the Union will be to> 
i^ive u]), on our part, the spirit of independence and self-respect, which 
made those Xorthern n)en our friends. The colonies had friends in (Jreai 
Britain — some of the niost influential and high-spirited men of the realm — 
Avho predicted the revolution as a result of the polic}' of aggression. Had 
not the colonies seceded, those men would have been found false witnesses 
t)f freedom herself, or of the minds " nourished in the wild," 

" Wliere nur?ing Nature smiled 

On iuTant Washington. '' 

It is due to our truest Northern friends that we secede. They are beg- 
ging us to relieve them of the burden of their helpless struggle against 
fanaticism. Others seem to be faintly hoping that " sonietliing may be 
done;" and still others — that large class which believe that slavery is au 
evil to be tolerated only accordiiig to contract — are melting away in the 
fierce glare of abolitionism, like snow before the flame. When it waxeth 
warm, they vanish ; what time it is hot they are consunu;d out of their 
ptaces. The utterances of the Plymouth pulpit are very good spccimeu.s 
of the preponderant Northern sentiment. Here is a quotation from a 
report of a late thanksgiving discourse : 

"He counseled forbearance, indulgence, respect for the rijjjhls of the 
several States. He spoke eloquently and kindly of the South. Our 
interests in commercial and manufactures were coincident. We shared 
a conunon historic glory. We can feel toward them no'ciuy nor jealousy. 
AVe must stand by the original bond— by the Constitution. We will earn- 
estly fulfill every duty to the Soutli, and we will do no more, though the 
ht-avens fall, though States unclasp their hands, and the Union is severed." 

This sounds liberal ; but let me read again from the same sermon : 

" On the question before the country we must take sides. Which should 
we take? If we take the north side, we go for civilization; if we lake 
the south side, we go for barbarism. There were good people at thfe 
South. He spoke of institutions, and insisted that those of the North wer* 
en tike side of civilization and those of the South on the side of barboi- 
ism. The prevailing conflict was a conflict between ci\ ilization and bar- 
barism. The South and the Nortli in the early days of ilie Republic 
found engrafted upon them the poisonous colonial seeds of slavery. — 
The North abandoned the institution, the South cherished it. We now 
reap a harvest of peace, the South reaps a harvest of tumidts and agitations. 
They expect to be as well off with their curse, as we are without it. The/ 



arc not, and llipy expect us to make it, up to thrni. For this reason our 
government has boon forcod into a ialbt position and placed in the charac- 
ter of an unjust judge. The Southern States are founded on a system of 
society rotten at the core ; the North has a vital heart. The two s.yHt*ma 
are in couflici. One ov the oilier naiol- yitid. Liitjer iitierly aiust give 
way, or oppression snccwnib." 

Another speaker, the Vev. Dr. }'>ellows, of New York, who always 
speak.^ kindly of the S.iuth, iind har; not a fibre of the mere fanatic in his 
composition, bi>re this testiaiony on the same day : (.Nov. '29, 1800.) 

'The sjicaker thou adverted to the ;j;rowth of the anti-slavery seiiliment 
in the North, and maintained that ilie natural repugnance to that inHtitu- 
tion was inevitable and irreM^tibU•. This confederacy, henceforth, was to 
be governed in the interests of freedom. The North could not alter hcr 
moral code, nor lay aside her deliberate convictions or abolish her popular 
majorities. The free States cannot take a step backwards." 

This is a fair sample of "the larger portion of northern friendship for the 
south and from such fricud.-hip wo must effect a speedy deliverance, before 
it proves ov'.r ruin. Ourcouitncrcial friends at the North will be a- much our 
friends after .'cccssiou, as they were before. 

Bui it i.s asked, Will not secession deepen the conflicts of the border? 
I think it will be the best peace measure we can adopt. Suppose the 
Korthern States were slareholdin-' : there would then be a" free country" 
aJong their Northern borders. Would there be border difficulties with 
Canada ? Tlierc would not and why V Ikcaiise religion, and phyloso- 
phy, morality and all other good things, combine to make people living 
andcr different governments, let each other alone. It is much easier 
then, fur each to say, " wo have nothing to do with the matter," so far 
as the interests of the other are concerned, than where they are be uiid 
together under the same Constitution, and subjected to the agitation.s of 
popular elections. Give the North slaves ; annex Canada, then the strug- 
gle fur the control of the Government comraei^ccs, and then commences 
also, the Ki"t>wthsof fanatici.-ini, .--eetional hates and border warfares, rank, 
deadly and irrepressible. 

Break up the struggle for tlic power of the Federal Government, and 
you will give such peace and s-ecurity to the border as it never can enjoy 
while that confiieL lasts, and last it will, vmdir the present rate »i" 
thing's, forever, or until slavery is sxtcrminatiicl. 

Rut, suppose the Northern States were to lepeal tlieir iVrsonai l.ibcr*^ 
Bill-', and give bonds to keep the peace, either by pledges or by an 
amendment of the Constitution, would you then be willing to give up the 
idea of secession '! For myself, 1 answer, unecinivocally, I would not. 
Were the North now to grant us everything we might ask, there would 
be a large minority lliere opposed to it, which would, in a few years, b.*- 
comc the majority on tiial very (|uestion as an isjue. By that lime, the 
South would be powerless to resist, or to secede. Now, I think, is the 
tide in lipr affaire, wlii-h if not taken at the flood will leave lu;r hop.*- 



lessly astrand. We are not now tliat strength -wliicli we were in old 
days when we commenced to coiicedo and compromise; but, I trust it 
can be added — 

" fhnt TTluch ".'? av'', ■(t'? nre ; 

Oiit- equal temper of heroin hearts, 

Maile weak by time aud fate, but. ntroug iu will 

To strive, to seek, to find— uo more to yield." 

I turn from these topics to others, of wliich these are, probably, but 
the indicators. We seem to Ije brought face to face with a revelation of 
Providence in history. Government and nationality are amonti- the most 
potent niQans which God has chosen for the moral and religious eleva" 
tion of mankind. He it is that appoints nations their '• bounds of habita- 
tion," to the end that they may feel after Him and find Him. These are 
His own words; and wherever a people are called to deliberate .upon the 
formation of an independent government, they deal with principles as 
sacred as morality and religion can make them. 

God has three great records : the book of inspiration, the book of nature, 
and the book of history. Tliey all agree. But thefirst named is the key 
to the others. I have just now quoted a passage which proclaims separate 
nationalities to be among the means of moral elevation. Nature and his- 
tory concur— the one with lier ditfereuces of surface and climate produces 
the varieties of the "one blood" which are necessary to separate gov- 
ernments, and the other holds up her record of events to show that judi- 
cious separations of men into independent nationalities is the necessary law 
of human progress. I say " separations," because addition comes before 
division. Looking backward to antiquity you see vast aggregations of men . 
These were not nations, but the material out of which nations were to be 
made. Before the birth of sciences and ideas, men were overwhelmed by 
the vastncss of material nature, and huddled together in swarms. It was 
the sentiment of fear which gathered them on the plains of Shiuar to 
build the Tower of Babel ; aud ever since, that same sentiment of fear 
has been causing them to unite for some similar impossible end of safety. 
God then visited them with confusion of speech,|Which must have involved 
differences iu the method of arriving at truth as well as in the sounds 
apd signs by which it is expressed. Ideas are, indeed, the basis of nation- 
alities. Every one must agree with the philosophy which declares that no 
nation which has not an idea to work out has any excuse for its existence. 
Has the world gone backward '^ No sane man can believe it. If it has 
gone forward, most certainly it has progressed from the epoch of chaotic 
agglomeration to the epoch of harmonious diversity. This at least is 
the tendency. It is the true spirit of the age. The nation?, if such they 
can be called, which are at the greatest distance from it arc the most bar- 
barous. What is the condition of the dissolution of the Chinese and 
Russian empires? The progress of enlightenment. Who believes that 
England can retain her vast colonial possessions any longer than the mo- 



raeut -when they fivst begin to tliink V No sooner <lid tho revolutionary 
fathera get adjusted to their new position and begin to cast their eyes 
s.bout them, than the question of sep.ii'ation from Engbind began to be 
agitated. It mattered not that she was tlie mother country ; and that 
the lands of the new people were held in her name — that she had human 
law, associations and powers on her side ; the colonies had the law of Pro- 
vidence on theirs — the law that "the element of division is the condi- 
tion of history." Nor can any sentiment call back, or any power check 
the How of historical development. Ever and anon secession has become 
a necessity, from the days of Abraham to the days of Washington and 
Garibaldi. !Nor will it ever cease to become a necessity .so long as the 
law of growth prevails. My own impression is that two or more nations 
were boru at once on the 4th of July 1776, and that the Constitution was 
the nurse appointed to take care of them until they became able to take 
care of themselves. The Constitution was not their mother ; they were 
born of history ; and Miey inherit her instinct of division. It has been 
manifesting itself through all the period of their childhood, and has now 
taken possession of their reason, and their conscience, and will never rest 
until it has been embodied in act Their reluctant acceptance of the Union 
was the first prophecy of its dissolution, and all the events since that time 
liave been conspiring to the fultillment of that prophecy. The present 
appeal of the Constitution to the .South is much like Pliaraoh's daughter 
might have been to Moses : " J found you floating a liolpless thing upon 
the Nile, and have protected you tintil you arc grown to manhood and to 
greatness." "Xevertheless," the conduct of the Israelitish law giver 
seemed to say, "lam not your son." lie had "come to yArs." So the 
South, grown out of lier minority, refuses to be called the daughter of the 
Constitution. She knows better. She feels it in her bones. Long as she 
has been to school in the liousoof the Constitution, she has not forgotten 
her mother ; and wlien tlie old lady comes to the door and calls, the voice 
of nature asserts its supremacy. The daughter was loaned, not given, to 
the schoolmaster ; she will go where she belongs. 

The argument tiiat we have done well under the Constitution is fallacious. 
It is just the same as to say that because a boy has done well as an ap- 
prentice, he should never be a boss. The change from infancy to miyi- 
liood may be very gradual and delightful ; but that will liardly avail to 
keep one forever within tiie bounds of irresponsible progress. See, what 
» change ! At first the North was in favor of the slave trade because it 
provided employment for her siiips, while the South was opposed to it be- 
cause she had no em]doyiucnt for the slaves. Just then commenced what 
the Iiistorians call "an astonishing career of discovery." JIargraves 
with iiis .Icnnv is followed by Arkwright with hisspinning frame, and Cart- 
wrightwitii liis loom, and Whitney with his gin, and Watt with his steam- 
engine. Nothing like this series of discoveries is known in the history of 
wricnce. Millions are dependent \ipon them for bread, and hundreds of 
millions for comfort. Treviouely to 1790 the United States did not ex- 



porta pound of cotton; in 1792 we exported 138,308 pounds; sixty years 
ago we exported about nineteen millions of pounds ; now we export a bil- 
lion of pounds and ten times nineteen millions for good measure. Seventy 
yeai'8 ago the export value of cotton was nothing; now it is about two 
hundred millions of dollars. Such has been the expansion of an interest, 
the dim, unrevcaled progress of which, was like to prove fatal to the 
formation of the Union. Underneath this expansion a marked change of 
moral sentiment has been going on, in order that when our material 
interest rofpiired division, the interests of morality might S'?eond the de» 
inand. At firet the North cared but little about the moral principle in- 
volved, while at the South, there was a geuer.il thoughtfulness on that 
subject. The North was then more proslavery than the South. Eacla 
has changed, and the change has been necessary in botii instances. It has- 
been made with a view to the working out of the idea assigned to each. — 
The North has to work out the problem of the hirer and the hired ; the 
South the problem of the owner and the owned. «That both can be solved 
on christian principles and on christian principles alone, I profoundly 
believe. That the problems are akin, and that the progressive solution 
of the one will help towards the progressive solution of the other, is 
doubtless true. But to that end they must be separated. The solutiofi 
is not to be intellectual, merely, but moral, and for that reason the moral 
responsiliility of each must be thrown upon itself. Whei'e does God plani 
the moral power when he makes a moral agent "? In his own will. The 
State is also a moral agent, and must differ with itself only on questions 
of policy, never upon the question of morality. That is the foundation^ 
and if it be destroyed what can the righteous do ? Even England could 
not get along with the two problems of free and slave labor under the 
same government. And ye: England and these Southern States couM 
easily agree in a policy beneficial to each. Does any one suggest that 
our agreement would be conditioned on the waters that separate us ': 
Did not wide waters separate the Ecglish isle from her slaveholding col- 
onies ? And yet she abolished slavery there, against the will of th*? 
masters, just as the North will abolish it here in spite of our protestations, 
\inless we do what the English slaveholding colonies could or would no*; 
^o — set up an independent government. As matters now stand Northei-E 
operatives and employers, instead of adjusting their own relations, join in 
demonstrations against the South, and the South, in turn, complains that 
these unjust and ignorant attacks upon her social system prevent her from 
discharging her hill duty to the slave. God has given tlie South some- 
millions of slaves to christianize ; and before they have learned the duty 
of obedience, the North etirs them to rebellion with notions of liberty, 
and then laughs at the South for attempting to make anything presentable 
out of such an institution. Why 'i Underneath the whole agitation lie? 
a false idea of moral responsibility. And this is fostered by holding the 
North to a connection with slavery, until in her distress to shake it otf 
fche nullifies the Federal Compact l>y the action of her State Legislatures^ 



10 

and violates sacreil and cssoutial usage in the election of a Presidential 
ticket of berown — a ticket for which no Soulbcrn State could Lave cast au 
•slectoral vote witliout iacurring everlasting disgrace. And yet it is 
proposed to subinit to the inauguration f>f such an administration iu all 
the States of tlie South ? On i\w day M'ben that is done the s|-:rit oS^ the 
South is broken forever. " If the salt have lost its savor wherewith shall 
it be salted '! — it is thenceforth fit for nothing but to be cast out and trod- 
den under foot of man." A wise man assures us that the blessing of 
Judah and Issachar will never in<,et — no people can be at once the 
lion's whelp and the a.rs between buidcns. It would seeiu that Provi- 
-dence, in order to drive us to secession, has removed from our position. 
in the Union ever}' plea but that of absolute vassalage. Let us not make 
ourselves ashamed to walk the soil of the South, while we live, and 
ashamed to lie down beneath it when we die ! 

There is no need, howevoi', to trouble ourselves with imaginary evils. 
The South will not submit. As I have before intimated, v/e are just a 
commencement cf the ^epoch of disintegration. Europe is stiuggling to 
break the chains of old alliances, and to adjust her nationalities accord- 
ing to their true relationships. Our peaceable division will do more to 
prevent bloodshed in these inevitable separations, than all other causes 
combined. Those who tliink our continued Union necessary to the force 
of our example, may be greatly mistaken. Suppose we form two separate 
governments without strikitig a blow, what greater triumph of Christian 
civilization could be exhibited V It would be as much more influential for 
good, than the continuance of the Union could be, as it is more in accord- 
ance with the spirit of history, and the requirements of the age. Peace 
hath her victories no less rerowned than war. Secession would be a 
revolution witliout anareh\', and without the shedding of a drop of blood- 
The example would rise on the world as the dawn of a new era in human 
afifairs. Nothing contributes more to the perpetuation of war than the old 
condition of its necessity — that nothing can be done without it. Hitherto 
we have thouglit secession im()oss;ble without war, and sorat; Lave been 
doing their best to think so stiU. But the rapid progress of events toward 
it, has thrciwn the ra^- of peace upon every dark cloud of the imagination. 
The old fi'.;hting impulse wakes up, and, with tlie instinct of courage, sees 
th.it there is nothing for it to do, and lies down to sleep again. Ko : the 
revolution is to be wholly a moral one, and it is as iuevitableas it is moral. 
Let us see further why I think so. 

Wii'n, just about one year ago, Mr. Ciiarlcs O'Conor, delivered his 
opinion at tiie Union meeting ic New York, that the Union must be 
abandoned, or that public sentiniont at the North must turn away from 
political leaders who talk of negro slavery being an evil — or a bad bar. 
gain which must be tolerated only as a bad bargain — and come fully over 
to the ground that slavery was "just, benign, lawful and proper," every 
bod}- at the South fi It f lie force and truth of that position. P.ut Northern 
sentiment never can be brought to that state. There is one thing that 



u 

could do it, and one alone, and tlial i^ tlie establishment of slavery in the 
JSTortbein fitates. Ko uioral idea can survive where there are no correts- 
pondiiig exterual facts to sustain it. Tlie Southern people them.selves 
could not believe iu the justice, benignity and I'roprioty of slavery, if 
tiiey did not, come in uaiiy emitacl wiiji it. Ji it uiu nut iulei wt u> e 
itself with their doinastic relations ; if they were not bound to it by tiie 
duties and syuipathies growing- out of the relation of muster and ser- 
vant ; — if, in a word, it did ui.l touch the hiari it could never do much 
with the mind. Our .servants must play with our children; we mus-t 
bear them in our arms, ere yet the wool has lo.st its early brown ; we musi 
lean over their sick couches, and receive in turn the anodyne or the new 
position on the bed of pain from their hands, in order that feelings inex- 
pressible a.H they are deep and tender may stir the heart — 

"Then old mipsus, she feel miglity sad, 
Ami de tewrs run (iowii like <le rain, 
And then old niassa, lie teel verv bad, 
'Case he never see old Ned again." 

Sow the doctrine that slavery is a good broadcast over the mind of a 
people which has no immediate connection wi'th slavery, as often as you 
may, it will never take root. It is sown by the wayside and on stony 
ground, and will always be picked np by the birds of excitement, ^"ay, 
even admit the ground to be good of its kind, the harve-it yoii expect t» 
reap from it by such a process, will never do more than aggravate the 
terrors of the famine. Experience has shown that the people of the North 
«i"e hostile to the negro and to slavery ; reason teaches us that they must 
continue to b(! so ; and the plainest dictates of honor and of safety agree 
m requiring us to rid them of the federal responsibility for its existence. 
Mr. O'Conor speaks of philosophy. There are various schools of philoso- 
phy. Mr. Seward's great power over the Northern masses springs from 
his philcso]>hy. His teachings of the "irrepressible cijiiflict,'" of ''a ballot 
for every nvaii or a bullet for every man," arc good for the North, but he 
mingles" them too easily with the declaration that llie North is compelled 
to maintain the army and navy for the support of slavery, for Northern 
^mfort, or for the interest of truth. The "irrepressible conflict" exist.s 
between labor and capital, and it is oidy the connection of the North with 
the South which turns it into the channels of national and congressional 
elections, to our continued annoyance and injury. His maxim "a bullet 
for every man or a ballot for every man," is very just iu a free society 
where the laborer has to bear the responsibilities of a citizen. It is quite 
comfortable doubtless, for the Nortlicru capitalist to pay his operative a 
tew shillings for his week's labor, telling him to be sure to conic by the 
polls on Monday morning and vote for the strong anti-slavery candidate. 
One of the strongest abolitionists I have ever seen in the North, was a 
seamstress who was scolded rudely out of a Jew store, because she 
was five rainntes behind the hour with the garment, which she had 
made for a price so infinitesimal that, with the best intentions, I have not 
been able to retain it iu ray memory. Of such njothers abolitionists are 



12 

horn. They do not like slave l;ibor — tliank God ! — and, therefore, keep 
away from tho Soulh. But I do not see why, with this thankfuhicFS to 
f-scape the pleasure of their intimate acquaintance, we should continue to 
pay high prices to enable them to vote aj^aiiist us. 

I recapitulate before proceeding to another topfc. Separations arc the 
law ill modern history, as aggregations were in aucient. Smaller goverc- 
ments, the enlargement of international law, the greater importance of 
treaties. Congresses of nations, are to be the fruits of the general improve- 
ment of mankind. The years are just before us when no vast goveruraent 
will be possible. It is false to tire teachings of a sound ])olitical philoso- 
phy to suppose that one great Republic can be built up and sustained oii 
t,his continent. Old ideas of national glory, of star-spangled banners, and 
Yankee Doodles may have some hold upon our memories ; but we must 
liave something better to live on than such classics as the-^e. Each age has 
its problem. Men try to get rid of thought and responsibility. But they 
cannot evade the^.e without incurring penalties and chastisements greater 
than ihey can bear. 

While a great Federal Union lusts, there will always be a struggle for 
power, which will always be directed against the Slave States. There 
was no anti-slavery interest in the first Senate ; now a large slave interest 
is in the minority there ; and the late election shows that the North is 
determined not to let us have even the Vice President. We are in the mi- 
norilj' of more than fifty in the Lower House. Half a dozen more States, 
all free, are knocking for admission. Wherever the carcass is, there 
the eagles will be gathered together. As fast as they are admitted, they 
will swell the ranks of the party who-^c one idea is the extirpation of 
slavery. Shall we still persist in the idea of a great Union ? On the 
contrary, we must turn this swelling Northern tide into ditlerent chan- 
nels. If we form a. Southern Republic, our <'.\ample will be followed. The 
Northern States will separate into different governments. A corrupt and 
corrupting centralism will be abolished; the resources of the continent 
will be developed, the character of the people elevated, and government, 
("tripped of its gewgaws and cured of its idle fancies, will be put to work 
on tiie true principle of a division of labor. Each Republic, with a 
complete working system of its own, will be able to keep its government 
within bounds, under the supervision of the peopi^ ; and the inter-Repub- 
lican meetings, which may from time to time be necessary for the regula- 
tion of matters pertaining to the general interest, will be conducted on 
higher principli's than those which rule in our present Federal Legislature. 

At first sight, the idi-a of " llu^ balance of the power" disconcerts us 
by bringing the struggles of Euroj)e to our minds. We need not console 
ourselves, however, witli tiie notion that we are far ahead of all theirost of 
the world in the science of politics. Tf we havi; sujiposed that one huge 
government, republican in form, could develoy) and protect all the interests 
of this conliuent, we have concealed from ourselves the obvi<ju3 trutli that 
siu written constitution can embrace different degrees of moral and Intel- 



13 

lectoal progress, or solve all the problems of latitude and diversity of race . 
It were vain for the student of politics to look for satisfactory guidance • 
on this subject to the writings and speeches of the early period of our 
history, whatever wisdom they may exhibit ou other themes. Nor will 
the "great expounder" or the "great commoner" guide ns beyond 
the immediately practical questions of their day. Webster and Clay .saw- 
only the pageantry of our politics. Both believed that our system would 
at some time be made consistent with itself by the extinction of slavery.— 
Calhoun alone of the great triumvirate saw the impossibility of this, and 
was driven by it to profound thought upon government in its original priu- 
ciples. Forced, as we are, to regard him as the representative statesman 
of the South, how pleasant it is to know that his life wa.s as pure as his 
intellect was grand I This reflection will cheer every one who opens 
his "Disquisition on Government" and his "Discourse on the Constitution of 
the United States," and induce the hope of findiug there some of those guid- 
ing principles which light the conclusions of the intellect only as they are 
furnished with the pure oil of the earnest, well-intentioned heart. Calhoun 
alone, of the statesmen of his day, wrote for posterity, leaving, to use his 
own language, " truth, plainly announced, to battle its own way." He 
alone foresaw this crisis in our history. His remedy was, the election of 
two Presidents, believing, as he did, that each section would strive to 
elect the man least obnoxious to the other, and that each section, being 
thus placed in possession of a negative or checking power upon the. 
other, would endeavor so to shape its policy as to offer no obstruction U> 
the working of the government. This remedy is the only one that caK 
be applied with any hope of success, and it is in the belief that it will 
not be tried that I found my conviction of the present inevitability of 
disunion. Indeed, it may be doubted whether this remedy, although 
it be so plausible, does not itself suggest the propriety of two govern- 
ments. However that may be, we must now believe with Mr. CalhouH 
that, "The end of the contest between separate interests, (under the sam* 
Constitutien,) will be the .subvei-sion of the Constitution, either by the 
undermining process of construction— where its meaning will admit of po3- 
sible doubt,— or by substituting what is called party-usage in place of its 
provisions ;— or, finally, when no other contrivance would subserve the 
purpose, by openly and boldly setting them asside." The division betwee» 
numerical «r popular majorities, and concurrent majorities, or the voice 
of interests, is fundamental to the Constitution. The House of Repre- 
sentatives is the embodiment of the numerical majority, the Senate of the 
concurrent. Eneh has a negative upon the action of the other. So it is 
throughout, except with regard to the Presidency. The framors of the 
Constitution endeavoi'ed to guard this point also, as well as they could ; 
but electoral colleges, choice by the House of Representatives, and .all the 
other complications, have failed to prevent popular parties from attempitig 
to secure and control the executive department. It is clear that the crisis 
was sure to come, as it has come, on the election ^of a President. And 
it seems evident that no compromise or guarantees can prevent its recur- 



J4 

«nee. By the next time, tlie popular innjorify may harp grown siifBciently 
bold to atU^ijii.t the cotn-sioii of the South. A luir eoncluKiori, on a view 
of the whole subject, is that a CoiiBtitutioii like ours is potent to reirulate- 
diff^icnces of power, but n.it to rtecure the rights of .liverae iiiteicsts — ad- 
iiiirable in its efficiency to protect Vermont against Pennsylvania or New 
\ork, but wholly unable to defend the interests of glare States against 
tbe popular majorities of the ^Torth. Conflict Beeius certain unless dis- 
nnion arrwt present t«ndenoie3. For that we eeeni to be fully prepared, 
in the spirit of our people, •which shrinks from the thought of the exercise 

of power over them by the I'resiJent elect as from the touch of the leprosy 

prepared in the consciousness of the Noithern States that they are the 
aggressors — and prepared by the possession of the glorious old sheei- 
anchor of the state sovereignty which will prevent us from drifting into 
anarchy during the progress of separation and reconstruction. 

The commercial crisis! Liberty has her crises as well as commerce. 
The outer courts have their interests; but there is a glory which rausi 
not depart from the shrine. Better for a people to break all images at 
thousand times, thau permit freedom once to say— " they are joined to 
their idols, let them alone." Better that a crisis drive down the price of 
cotton than that it should sink the free spirit of a people. Commercial 
prosperity- has risen refreshed from many n depressiou ; but — 

" III vdin mipbt Li)>erly invoice 
Tlie f.|iiril i.. i:» bondd;;.? liroke, 
Or raise U»e neck ihat courU the joke." 

The case of the South and the Union re minds nie of Kint; Arthur ami 
Sir Bedivere. When the King at Lyonness knew that his hour had come, 
that the old must give place to the new, he told the Knight to lake his 
sword Excalibur, and fling him into the middle of the lake. At first the 
Kntght refused ; he was too loyal to leave the King alone. At last, 
however' he prevailed on himself to make a feint to do the bidding. 
But when he came to the margin of the meer, and drew forth the 
brand, and saw that the haft was rich with diamond studs and subtlest 
jewelry, it seemed better to him to bravo E.vcalibur concealed among the 
•withered water-fl.igs upon the shore. His lust of gold betrayed itself to 
tl«e King, and again the Knight was sent back. This time, he grew sei>- 
»inM?uLal, Mild 111. Might thu'. with Excalibur much honor, reverence and 
fame w.-re lost. Tiie King pierced the cloud of ihis conceit also, and sent 
biiu back the third lime, baying — 

" Thou woulilst berroy me for llic prerlou* hill, 

K'lhfr trom lu't of )f..|ij— or llkea )i\r\ 

\alulDj{ 111.- tliidy iili-MBure i.f ih<- eyes. 

I!ut l: :ti'.u f|>;i'i- i-. tllriK Kx.-»lit)ur, 

I will arlie and slay ihie with ruy baDdi." 

Th<'n ran the Knight and clutched the sword and strongly wheeled 
Mid threw it ; the my-4ic hand of the Past arose and dn-w it under in the- 
Uieer ; the King seeing in the eyed of the Knight that the deed was don«v 



15 

and hearing bis report of the naystic hand, knew thac his time h^d come, 
and gave command to the Knight to carry him to the lake, and place him 
in the barge that plies between the hither and the thither shores of 
Time. 

"Thpti loudlv cried the bold Sir Bedivere, 
' Ah ! tny ' ord Arthur, whither Bhall I j-o ? 
Where shall I hide my forehead and ruy eyes ? 
For now I Bee the true old times Hre de«d." ' 
And slowly answered Arthur Irom the barge : 
' The old order chHnceth, vieldinc place to new, 
And God fulfils himself in inany way?, 
Leet one good custom should corrupt the world!"- 

That the moral idea is the foundati on of government, is clear, because- 
government implies law, and the essential principle of law is justice. 
This alone maintains the Stale, and when its exercise is prevented, either 
by external force, or internal corruption, the State no longer exists. 

From the doctrine that the moral idea is the foundation of the State, 
flows the necessity of separate governments. The fundamental idea of 
moral responsibility is tlie same everywhere; but its expression must be 
moiiilied by time and place. What was right for a man or a State once, 
may not, be right, at another time, under other circumstances. It must 
-be modified by place, wiiich is only another name for anotlier condition 
of things. I need not elaborate : everybody admits that what is right 
under one condition of things, whether of time or place, may not be right 
under another. 

As to time, the question of expediency may have a large influence. 
The govern ment may even appear to be inconsistent witii itself — declar- 
ing war now, for instance, on grounds which would seem insufficient at 
some other period ; but as to the condition of things in different: placeSj, 
the inconsistency of the one organized government njust lead to its de- 
struction, or to its injustice. There is no alternative ; it must cease, or it 
must become oi)pressive. Doubtless there will be many who can see rea- 
sons for its perpetuation under such circumstances; but the weaker, or 
oppressed portion, will be the fifst to see the matter in a very different 
light. To ihem will come, in all its force, the question of dependence or 
independence, submission or resistance. What does this question imply t 
Expediency ? No : that is the question of policy merely — of policy as 
to the mode of carrying out the political ends of the State. But the other 
raises the question of the existence or non-existence of the State. For 
wherever the question of moral right is raised, justly, by any portion of 
this world's population, there, I say, it .means nothing more nor less than 
a .separate government. This is the issue ; and the answer to it is the 
test of the moral condition of the people. If they make the attempt and 
fail, whether at Thermopylae or in the shadow of the Carpathians, whether 
their name be Scot, Pole, (ireek, or Hungarian— they become the heroes of 
history, martyrs, whose blood is the seed of liberty. If they submit, 
they barter away the last heritage of their claim to the name of man, and 
consign themtelvob to the accaiuulaliug iufaiiij of years. 



16 

Can wc fiAj that (his i.ssue is not before us? Have we been sincere in 
beliet'ing our social system to be morally right Y Hswe we been walking 
in craftiness and handling the word of God deceitfully ? If so, we are 
iloomed, uuless wc renounce our error. If not, we are bound to demand 
for that social system a place of habitation, and a government through 
whicli it can be expressed. It canHot be morally expressed under the same 
government with a people Avho hold its essential iiumoralily ; this drives 
U3 to all those shifts of compromise which destroy our honor and sap the 
tbuudations of our independence. After having given us this system, 
and a portion of the earth's surface, and after fully pledging us to tlie one 
and the otlier — to the one by the sacred ties of home, and to the other by 
fchc sacred ties of right and duty. Providence permits the issue of moral, 
intellectual and governmental dependence or independence to come upou 
us too distinctly for evasion. The federal compact has been broken by 
the other contracting party, and the man who has been elected President 
by the Northern States alone, on a sectional issue, fuels that he cannot be 
the President of the South. He dare not claim the right; and the party 
which elected him claim the position for him as our masters and not as our 
equals. If wc submit, it is but an invitation to an essentially foreign power 
to take our right of self-government into his hands. It will be the sale of 
the birth-right, the barter of conscience, and the confession of imbecility. 
Therefore, the genius of the people is awakening the echoes of the land 
with her call — 

Let a great asspitibly be 

Of the fearless »nil the free, 
On some si)ot of Southern grouml, 

Where the plaiaa stretch wide uroand. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRES: 



Let the blue sky overhea<i, 

The {rreen e:irth, on whieli ye fre»d, 
All that roust eternal be, 

Witnej^s liie solemnity. 

And let Panic, who outspeedj, 

The career of winged steed* 
Pass, a diiregardeil shade, 

Through your phalanx undismayed. 

Let a vast a-sembiy be, " 012 025 947 7 

And with Rreat buleiniiity 
Deiilare, wltli simple wordu, that ye 
Are, H* Uud has laade y*u, rabc '. 



